This was also the year he began a 15-year performing career on stage at the Deutsche Oper (German National Opera) in Berlin, taking on a variety of roles including M. Guillot in Tschaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

[citation needed] Record releases followed throughout the late 1990s with his band "King Bastard" which featured Tex Morton on guitar.

[4] Their song "Time on my Hands" was featured in Leander Haußmann's film of Sven Regener's novel "Herr Lehmann".

During a period arranging and co-producing with Moses Schneider (Beatsteaks, Tocotronic), and writing with Christian Geller (Banaroo, No Angels), Vanessa Petruo and Apocalyptica, Bonin also found time to tour and write with Ben Hamilton and The Say Highs, playing supports for The Sea and Cake, Jack Peñate and Kula Shaker, among others.

Bonin's mastery of the German language also became evident with the publication of his English translation of the autobiography of Edgar Froese which was published in September 2017.